Bill Cosby finally charged
Bill Cosby was charged today with felony aggravated indecent assault, a sexual assault. The charges stem from the allegations by Andrea Constand. She said that Bill Cosby had previously made two sexual advances which she rejected. Subsequently she alleged that Bill Cosby drugged her and then assaulted her.
Andrea Constand was an operations manager of the Temple University women’s basketball team when she first met Cosby. She said the assault occurred at his home in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania in 2004.
The charge comes two weeks before the statute of limitations would have made a criminal case moot. Montgomery County outgoing District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman quietly reopened the Constand case. Her assistant, the now District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele, oversaw the investigation as they sent detectives to Canada to interview Andrea Constand.
Bill Cosby arraigned and booked
People tells her story:
In January 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his mansion, “telling her he wanted to offer her assistance in her pursuit of a different career,” the suit said. She agreed to meet him and arrived at his home around 9 p.m. They began talking and, during the conversation, Constand said she was feeling “stressed” about making her career decision, the suit said.
Cosby “then offered [her] three blue pills, which he told her were herbal medication, which would help her relax,” the suit said. Constand took the pills with bottled water and within a short period of time, her “knees began to shake, her limbs felt immobile, she felt dizzy and weak, and she began to feel only barely conscious,” the lawsuit said. (Cosby had denied drugging Constand, saying that he gave her Benadryl.)
She allegedly told Cosby she didn’t feel well and, because she couldn’t walk on her own, he led her to a sofa and laid her down, the suit said.
“Subsequently, [Cosby] positioned himself behind [Constand] on the sofa, touched her breasts and vaginal area, rubbed his penis against her hand, and sexually assaulted her,” the suit alleges. Constand was “semi-conscious” throughout the ordeal, the suit said, then lost consciousness shortly afterward.
She allegedly woke around 4 a.m., “feeling raw in and around her vaginal area,” the lawsuit said. Her “clothes and undergarments were in disarray,” the suit said.
After she woke up, Cosby greeted her “in his bathrobe,” the suit said. She left his home by herself and, one year later, reported his actions to police in Durham, Ontario then was referred to authorities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where the alleged incident occurred.
The stories of Bill Cosby’s alleged sexual assaults are sad and ironic. Over the years Cosby has been critical in a less than fatherly manner on black boys and many struggling black families without ascertaining context of certain behaviors. Ironically the most vile of behaviors is what he is alleged to have committed, not one time, not 10 times, but dozens of times. It is poetic justice that his projection has come back to bite him.